NAME
Pantry - Configuration management tool for chef-solo
VERSION
version 0.010
SYNOPSIS
$ mkdir my-project
$ cd my-project
$ pantry init
$ pantry create node foo.example.com
$ pantry list nodes
$ pantry apply node foo.example.com --recipe nginx
$ pantry apply node foo.example.com --default nginx.port=80
$ pantry sync node foo.example.com
DESCRIPTION
"pantry" is a utility to make it easier to manage a collection of
computers with the configuration management tool Chef Solo
USAGE
Arguments to the "pantry" command line tool follow a regular structure:
$ pantry VERB [[NOUN] [ARGUMENTS...]]
See the following sections for details and examples by topic.
Pantry setup and introspection
init
$ pantry init
This initializes a pantry in the current directory. Currently, it just
creates some directories for use storing cookbooks, node data, data
bags, etc.
list
$ pantry list nodes
$ pantry list roles
$ pantry list environments
$ pantry list cookbooks
$ pantry list bags
Prints to STDOUT a list of items of a particular type managed within the
pantry.
Managing nodes
In this section, when a node NAME is required, the name is expected to
be a valid DNS name or IP address. The name will be converted to
lowercase for consistency. When referring to an existing node, you may
often abbreviate it to a unique prefix, e.g. "foo" for
"foo.example.com".
Also, whenever a command takes a single 'node NAME' target, you may give
a single dash ('-') as the NAME and the command will be run against a
list of nodes read from STDIN.
You can combine this with the "pantry list" command to do batch
operations. For example, to sync all nodes:
$ pantry list nodes | pantry sync node -
Pantry supports grouping nodes into arbitrarily named environments, such
as "test", "staging" or "production". The node commands "create" and
"list" can be given an environment selector with the "--env ENV_NAME" or
"-E ENV_NAME" options and all operations will be happen in the context
of that environment.
This works with "list" and input from STDIN for a handy way to sync all
nodes in an environment:
$ pantry list nodes -E staging | pantry sync node -
See ""Managing Environments" for more.
create
$ pantry create node NAME
Creates a node configuration file for the given "NAME".
rename
$ pantry rename node NAME DESTINATION
Renames a node to a new name. The old node data file is renamed. The
"NAME" must exist.
delete
$ pantry delete node NAME
Deletes a node. The "NAME" must exist. Unless the "--force" or "-f"
options are given, the user will be prompted to confirm deletion.
show
$ pantry show node NAME
Prints to STDOUT the JSON data for the given "NAME".
apply
$ pantry apply node NAME --recipe nginx --role mail --default nginx.port=80
Applies recipes, roles or attributes to the given "NAME".
To apply a role to the node's "run_list", specify "--role role" or "-R
role". May be specified multiple times to apply more than one role.
Roles will be appended to the "run_list" before after any existing
entries but before any recipes specified in the same command.
To apply a recipe to the node's "run_list", specify "--recipe RECIPE" or
"-r RECIPE". May be specified multiple times to apply more than one
recipe.
To apply an attribute to the node, specify "--default KEY=VALUE" or "-d
KEY=VALUE". If the "KEY" has components separated by periods ("."), they
will be interpreted as subkeys of a multi-level hash. For example:
$ pantry apply node NAME -d nginx.port=80
will be added to the node's data structure like this:
{
... # other node data
nginx => {
port => 80
}
}
If the "VALUE" contains commas, the value will be split and serialized
as an array data structure. For example:
$ pantry apply node NAME -d nginx.port=80,8080
will be added to the node's data structure like this:
{
... # other node data
nginx => {
port => [80, 8080]
}
}
Both "KEY" and "VALUE" support periods and commas (respectively) to be
escaped by a backslash.
If a "VALUE" is a literal string containing 'true' or 'false', it will
be replaced in the configuration data with actual JSON boolean values.
N.B. While the term "--default" is used for command line consistency,
attributes set on nodes actually have what Chef terms "normal"
precedence.
strip
$ pantry strip node NAME --recipe nginx --role mail --default nginx.port
Strips recipes, roles or attributes from the given "NAME".
To strip a role to the node's "run_list", specify "--role role" or "-R
role". May be specified multiple times to strip more than one role.
To strip a recipe to the node's "run_list", specify "--recipe RECIPE" or
"-r RECIPE". May be specified multiple times to strip more than one
recipe.
To strip an attribute from the node, specify "--default KEY" or "-d
KEY". The "KEY" parameter is interpreted and may be escaped just like in
"apply", above.
sync
$ pantry sync node NAME
Copies cookbooks and configuration data to the "NAME" node and invokes
"chef-solo" via "ssh" to start a configuration run. After configuration,
the latest run-report for the node is updated in the 'reports' directory
of the pantry.
edit
$ pantry edit node NAME
Invokes the editor given by the environment variable "EDITOR" on the
configuration file for the "name" node.
The resulting file must be valid JSON in a form acceptable to Chef.
Generally, you should use the "apply" or "strip" commands instead of
editing the node file directly.
Managing roles
In this section, when a role NAME is required, any name without
whitespace is acceptable. The name will be converted to lowercase for
consistency. When referring to an existing role, you may often
abbreviate it to a unique prefix, e.g. "web" for "webserver".
Also, whenever a command takes a single 'role NAME' target, you may give
a single dash ('-') as the NAME and the command will be run against a
list of roles read from STDIN.
You can combine this with the "pantry list" command to do batch
operations. For example, to add a recipe to all roles:
$ pantry list roles | pantry apply role - --recipe ntp
create, rename, delete, show and edit
These commands work the same as they do for nodes. The difference is
that you must specify the 'role' type:
$ pantry create role web
$ pantry show role web
apply and strip
The "apply" and "strip" commands have slight differences, as roles have
two kinds of attributes, "default attributes" ("--default" or "-d") and
"override attributes" ("--override"), with slightly different
precedence.
$ pantry apply role NAME -d nginx.user=nobody --override nginx.port=80
$ pantry strip role NAME -d nginx.user --override nginx.port
The "--recipe" ("-r") and "--role" ("-R") arguments work the same as for
nodes. Note that roles can have other roles in their "run_list".
When Chef merges attribute, the role default attribute has the lower
precedence than node attributes. Override attributes have higher
precedence than node attributes. Yes, this is a gross simplification of
how Chef does it. See Chef docs for more:
Roles have two kinds of run lists: default and environment-specific. The
default run list applies whenever there is no environment-specific run
list for the active environment for a node. You can apply/strip
environment-specific run list entries with the "-E ENV_NAME" option, or
omit it to apply/strip from the default list.
$ pantry apply role web -r nginx
$ pantry apply role web -r ufw -E production
Managing data bags
In this section, when a bag NAME is required, any name without
whitespace is acceptable. The name will be converted to lowercase for
consistency. When referring to an existing bag, you may often abbreviate
it to a unique prefix, e.g. "users/d" for "users/dagolden".
Note that data bags may exist at the "top" level or within
subdirectories and so either of these forms are acceptable as bag names:
* top_level_bag
* bag_name/item_name
Also, whenever a command takes a single 'bag NAME' target, you may give
a single dash ('-') as the NAME and the command will be run against a
list of bags read from STDIN.
You can combine this with the "pantry list" command to do batch
operations.
$ pantry list bags | grep users | pantry apply bag - -d remove=true
create, rename, delete, show and edit
These commands work the same as they do for nodes. The difference is
that you must specify the 'bag' type:
$ pantry create bag users/dagolden
$ pantry show bag users/dagolden
apply and strip
The "apply" and "strip" commands have slight differences, as bags don't
have attributes in the way that nodes or roles do. The "default" flags
are used and just set fields in the top level of the bag. (Don't set
"id" or bad things might happen.)
$ pantry apply bag NAME -d key=value
$ pantry strip bag NAME -d key
Managing environments
In this section, when a environment NAME is required, any name without
whitespace is acceptable. The name will be converted to lowercase for
consistency. When referring to an existing role, you may often
abbreviate it to a unique prefix, e.g. "prod" for "production".
Also, whenever a command takes a single 'environment NAME' target, you
may give a single dash ('-') as the NAME and the command will be run
against a list of roles read from STDIN.
You can combine this with the "pantry list" command to do batch
operations. For example, to add a default to all environments:
$ pantry list environments | pantry apply environment - -d nginx.port=8080
Environments are different than nodes and roles because there are really
three ways to work with an environment. When you create an environment,
an environment data file is created to hold attributes. When you create
a node, it gets assigned to an environment (the "_default" environment
is used if you don't specify one). However, you can create a node in an
environment even if you don't create the environment data file first.
Finally, roles can have environment-specific run lists.
Here's a summary of those distinctions:
When you want to affect environment data files, you'll use "pantry VERB
environment ..." commands, like this:
$ pantry show environment staging
When you want to set an environment for node and role actions, you'll
use the "--env" or "-E" selector option
$ pantry create node foo.example.com -E test
$ pantry apply role web -r ufw -E production
create, rename, delete, show and edit
These commands work the same as they do for nodes and roles. The
difference is that you must specify the 'environment' type:
$ pantry create environment staging
$ pantry show environment staging
apply and strip
The "apply" and "strip" commands work like roles, except that
environments don't have run lists.
$ pantry apply environment NAME -d nginx.user=nobody --override nginx.port=80
$ pantry strip environment NAME -d nginx.user --override nginx.port
If you want to have different run lists in different environments, you
have to do that via roles, with environment-specific run lists:
# turn on firewall in production
$ pantry apply role web -r ufw -E production
An environment-specific run list *replaces* the default run list if the
role is applied to a node in the specified environment.
Chef Solo does not yet have support for merging environment attributes
the way Chef Client does. Therefore, during sync, Pantry will do its own
merge with node attributes to provide a reasonable emulation. The
precedence is slightly different, but if you have overlapping
environment, role and node attributes and the order is really important
to you, you're probably over-complicating things. See Chef docs for
more:
Managing cookbooks
Pantry does very little to manage cookbooks -- this is left up to you
and you are free to do whatever you like in the "cookbooks" directory.
As a convenience, however, Pantry may be used to create an empty
boilerplate cookbook for you to customize:
$ pantry create cookbook my-cookbook
Getting help
commands
$ pantry commands
This gives a list of all pantry commands with a short description of
each.
help
$ pantry help COMMAND
This gives some detailed help for a command, including the options and
arguments that may be used.
AUTHENTICATION
"pantry" relies on OpenSSH for secure communications with managed nodes,
but does not manage keys itself. Instead, it expects the user to manage
keys using standard OpenSSH configuration and tools.
The user should specify SSH private keys to use in the ssh config file.
One approach would be to use the "IdentityFile" with a host-name
wildcard:
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/identities/id_dsa_%h
This would allow a directory of host-specific identities (which could
all be symlinks to a master key). Another alternative might be to create
a master key for each environment:
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_dsa_dev
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_dsa_test
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_dsa_prod
"pantry" also assumes that the user will unlock keys using "ssh-agent".
For example, assuming that ssh-agent has not already been invoked by a
graphical shell session, it can be started with a subshell of a
terminal:
$ ssh-agent $SHELL
Then private keys can be unlocked in advance of running "pantry" using
"ssh-add":
$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_dsa_test
$ pantry ...
See the documentation for "ssh-add" for control over how long keys stay
unlocked.
ROADMAP
In the future, I hope to extend pantry to support some or all of the
following:
* tagging nodes
* searching nodes based on configuration
* encrypted data bags (or equivalent functionality)
* cookbook download from Opscode community repository
* bootstrapping Chef over ssh
If you are interested in contributing features or bug fixes, please let
me know!
SEE ALSO
Inspiration for this tool came from similar chef-solo management tools.
In addition to being implemented in different languages, each approaches
the problem in slightly different ways, neither of which fit my
priorities. Nevertheless, if you use chef-solo, you might consider them
as well:
* littlechef (Python)
* pocketknife (Ruby)
* knife-solo (Ruby)
SUPPORT
Bugs / Feature Requests
Please report any bugs or feature requests through the issue tracker at
. You will be notified
automatically of any progress on your issue.
Source Code
This is open source software. The code repository is available for
public review and contribution under the terms of the license.
git clone git://github.com/dagolden/pantry.git
AUTHOR
David Golden
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
This software is Copyright (c) 2011 by David Golden.
This is free software, licensed under:
The Apache License, Version 2.0, January 2004